New Orleans is understood for its jazz, delicacies, Disneyland and, apparently, demise. Founded in 1995 by J.D. Healy and Cathee Shultz, the Museum of Death was created to fill what they referred to as a “void in death education,” and has since made mortality its important attraction. Originally housed in San Diego’s first mortuary (as soon as owned by Wyatt Earp), it now operates in each Hollywood and New Orleans. If watching true crime is your factor and also you’ve ever wished a crash course in the macabre facet of historical past, that is your house. Inside, you’ll discover the world’s largest assortment of serial killer paintings, crime-scene images, Victorian mourning jewelry, vintage post-mortem kits, Manson Family memorabilia, mortician instruments, and even taxidermied pets. Not meant for the faint of coronary heart, the self-guided tour (about 45 minutes to an hour) is each a disturbing and eye opening expertise. Open each day from 10 am to six pm. (*5*). — Preeti Shivani
Les Catacombes, Paris
Beneath Paris’ trend and love-ridden streets lies a a lot darker underbelly: a 200-mile maze stacked with the bones of over six million Parisians. Created in the late 18th century to deal with overflowing cemeteries and public well being considerations, the metropolis’s disused Tombe-Issoire quarries have been transformed into an unlimited underground ossuary. The first transfers, from the Saints-Innocents Cemetery, started in 1785 and continued for years, filling the tunnels with neatly organized skulls and femurs in eerie, geometric patterns. Dedicated as the “Municipal Ossuary of Paris” in 1786, and nicknamed the Catacombs after Rome’s well-known burial tunnels, the website opened to the public by appointment in 1809. Today, Les Catacombes stays the world’s largest underground grave and a chilling reminder that regardless of the romance above floor, demise nonetheless retains good firm. Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:45 am to eight:30 pm. Website. — Zara Flavia Dmello
Bodmin Jail, Cornwall
